Paint Schoodic

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Building lightsabers

Steampunk and Star Wars both tinker with our headlong rush into the future.

Lightsaber built by Matthew Krahling, photo courtesy of Emerson Champion.

Sometimes when I fly, I wonder what life will be like when
airplanes are obsolete. Will a few examples be lovingly preserved and sailed
like the schooner fleet on the Maine
coast? This weekend, I decided that those relics will probably look like Star Wars.

I might be alone among Americans in having almost no exposure
to George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise. I saw the first
movie on its release. It struck me then as lovely, light and energetic, but I didn’t
look for any deep themes. Nor did I feel the need to see the rest of them.
While I understood the references to Arthurian legend, chivalry and the Samurai,
these are universal themes.

Of course, Star Wars
references are embedded in popular culture. We remember President Reagan calling
the Soviet Union the “evil empire,” and people intoning, “May the Force be with
you.”

Lightsaber built by Matthew Krahling, photo courtesy of Emerson Champion.

This week, I saw my parents’ godchild for the first time in
many years. Matthew is one of a small coterie of enthusiasts who make lightsabers as a hobby. Why
would a smart, engaged young person choose this as a creative outlet?

At age 34, Matthew has grown up in a completely digitalized
media world. “People my age are sick of animation,” Matthew told me. “It all
looks the same.”

That slickness reflects where he lives: the Baltimore-Washington
metropolitan sprawl. It’s one of four mega-cities in America. However, its
culture is shared by every large American city: excessively groomed landscapes,
traffic jams, box stores and cookie-cutter houses. His generation’s longing and
need for authenticity runs deeper than media.

For the original Star
Wars film, the props were constructed by special-effects
expert John
Stears from old press
cameraflash battery packs and other bits and
pieces. Set designer Roger Christian found the handles
for the Graflex side-attach
flash in a photography shop in London.

Lightsaber built by Matthew Krahling, photo courtesy of Emerson Champion.

As Matthew talked to me about lightsabers and their devotees,
I was keenly reminded of another contemporary aesthetic movement, Steampunk. It is often
traced back to the science-romances of Jules
Verne, H.G. Wells, and Mary
Shelley. It’s overtly Victorian in its trappings, but its most important
hallmark is the way it mixes digital media with traditional craftsmanship. In
that, it directly quotes Star Wars.

Lightsaber built by Matthew Krahling, photo courtesy of Emerson Champion.

“The Star Wars universe
is the universe in which some of the most respected things can be no greater
than my old truck was in real life,” wrote an anonymous fan on the internet. “Lived-in,
used, repaired, and somewhat dilapidated, but still of purpose.” In other words, it is a culture of tinkerers.

Steampunk answers the need to modify and control our
headlong rush into the future. In 1977, we barely had a glimmer of what that
future—controlled and controlling—would be. In retrospect, all that tinkering looms as a landmark aesthetic statement.